Mitch Daniels Announces That He Will Not Run for President Mitch Daniels Announces That He Will Not Run for President
We bid Mitch Daniels fond adieu, And say, “Mitch, we admire you For saying that what you love best Is family, and not this quest.” Most candidates, without a doubt, Seem best to us when they drop out.
May 26, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin
The Monster and Monterrey: The Politics and Cartels of Mexico’s Drug War The Monster and Monterrey: The Politics and Cartels of Mexico’s Drug War
When organized crime and drug violence came to Monterrey, the city turned to the military for help. It was a choice many would come to regret.
May 25, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Nik Steinberg
Heroine Blues: On Dorian Lynskey and Sara Marcus Heroine Blues: On Dorian Lynskey and Sara Marcus
Whoever sings them and however great they sound, rebel songs can't do your fighting for you.
May 25, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Franklin Bruno
Solving The Nation’s Cryptic Crosswords Solving "The Nation"’s Cryptic Crosswords
Newly revised and expanded (April 15, 2015).
May 25, 2011 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto
Bob Dylan’s Top Ten Protest Songs Bob Dylan’s Top Ten Protest Songs
Bob Dylan turns 70 on Tuesday. To mark the occasion I've assembled a list of what I consider his top ten protest songs with accompanying videos.
May 19, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg
Strauss-Kahn Lightens Gingrich’s Baggage Strauss-Kahn Lightens Gingrich’s Baggage
Yes, Gingrich, our yard-sale Don Juan, Perked up at the news of Strauss-Kahn: Compared with a rape charge, some feel, Philandering’s not a big deal: Affairs, for which Newt has repented, Involved only those who’d consented. But still his campaign’s going south: His foot still gets stuck in his mouth.
May 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Calvin Trillin
An Imperfect Life: On George and W.B. Yeats An Imperfect Life: On George and W.B. Yeats
Perfection of the life or of the work? The correspondence between W.B. Yeats and his wife George shows the complexities of art and life entwined.
May 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
Trials: On Janet Malcolm Trials: On Janet Malcolm
Janet Malcolm can be brutal in her judgments, but it is the casual brutality of keen observation.
May 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Miriam Markowitz
Swarf Swarf
If you have seen the fine metallic filings flying onto the fellow who crimps copper into flashing and fashions pivot hinges from brass, you have seen it. This is not the late Bronze Age. There are no palace economies, only the economy of one man milling metal to earn the flimsy dollars that keep him fed. When you knock on his door he quiets the grindstone raises his polycarbonate visor and greets you swathed in a swarm of gold— not war gold or altar gold but the metalsmith’s hard-won residue: swarf.
May 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Erica Funkhouser
Kerf Kerf
What disappears when an eight-foot plank is sawn in half, yielding two less-than-four-foot boards, a solid term for what’s lost to the teeth of separation. Neither sawdust nor error, nor the labor of gremlins waiting to wreak havoc on perfectly accurate measurements. Kerf—you will know it by its absence, like divided attention. Small consolation: each board as it’s halved releases both sides of a single scent, limewood for linden, pine for pine.
May 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Erica Funkhouser